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Get ready for the NextGen Supply Chain

If you frequent supply chain conferences, as I do, you’ve probably noticed that some of the best-attended sessions are the ones that focus on emerging technologies—or what we’re calling the NextGen Supply Chain.

By Bob Trebilcock ·
January 25, 2018

If you frequent supply chain conferences, as I do, you’ve probably noticed that some of the best-attended sessions are the ones that focus on emerging technologies—or what we’re calling the NextGen Supply Chain.

You may have noticed something else: While topics like Big Data, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, blockchain and robotics play to standing room audiences, there’s a lot of confusion about what to do with the information. At the 2016 APICS conference, one member of the audience asked a direct question at the end of an excellent session on Big Data by Hannah Kain, the CEO of Alom: “This sounds great. But there’s not a single individual in our operation who knows anything about this. Where do I start?”

Where do I start? It’s a question we’ve been thinking about a lot. To that end, we launched the NextGen Supply Chain newsletter in August. Once a month, we’re posting six brief articles about one of the emerging next generation technologies and sending it out as a newsletter. If you’re interested in the topic, I’d urge you to sign up for our newsletters. Just click on the “subscribe” drop down menu on the top right-hand side of the home page, choose newsletters, and go from there.

If you frequent supply chain conferences, as I do, you’ve probably noticed that some of the best-attended sessions are the ones that focus on emerging technologies—or what we’re calling the NextGen Supply Chain.

You may have noticed something else: While topics like Big Data, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, blockchain and robotics play to standing room audiences, there’s a lot of confusion about what to do with the information. At the 2016 APICS conference, one member of the audience asked a direct question at the end of an excellent session on Big Data by Hannah Kain, the CEO of Alom: “This sounds great. But there’s not a single individual in our operation who knows anything about this. Where do I start?”

Where do I start? It’s a question we’ve been thinking about a lot. To that end, we launched the NextGen Supply Chain newsletter in August. Once a month, we’re posting six brief articles about one of the emerging next generation technologies and sending it out as a newsletter. If you’re interested in the topic, I’d urge you to sign up for our newsletters. Just click on the “subscribe” drop down menu on the top right-hand side of the home page, choose newsletters, and go from there.

About the Author

Bob Trebilcock

Bob Trebilcock, editorial director, has covered materials handling, technology, logistics and supply chain topics for nearly 30 years. In addition to Supply Chain Management Review, he is also Executive Editor of Modern Materials Handling. A graduate of Bowling Green State University, Trebilcock lives in Keene, NH. He can be reached at 603-357-0484.

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